Cummins Freak

you guys know of any major problems with a chevy 6.5L TD in a '94 1500 this truck doenst look like to bad of a deal for DDing?

How do these ttrucks do in the winter......It would stay 100% stock

http://www.jimstrucks.com/vehicle_pa...6164913-.shtml

MRFD715

A friend of mine had one in a 97 2500. It was a gutless wonder, and he had some problems with the fuel system. They like to go through head gaskets as well from what i've seen of them. I was told by a gentleman that has probably 20 6.5 trucks that you either got a good one or a bad one.

Nick02Ram

Yeah my buddy also had a 97, 2500. They are definetely turds, but like MRFD said, as long as ya got a good one, they will run forever. We had one where I used to work with something like 250,000 miles.

staarma

Two questions needing to be asked about that truck. Why doesn't it have the cutouts in the front bumper and why is the low coolant light on? We had two of these trucks. The first one was complete trouble and we ended up with a new motor at around 38k and then got rid of it. The second one had a new fuel system and turbo put on at around 80k and then ran until about 225k and we got rid of it. One was a 94 and the other a 95. Neither would pull the skin off of rice pudding but they ran ok empty. Both were 4wd crew duallys.

pind

I have a 93 here, last year of the all mechanical engine.

Good unit, have worked on several others, all high milers. No major head gasket problems on stock engines. heads tend to crack between the valves, or spider out to the glow plug bores. The glow plug bore isn't an issue, but between the valves is.

Exhaust can plug up, get rid of the muffler for a free flow model, and you'll be fine. Turbo is set to around 7 -9 psi, 11 is about max before you're going to have problems in the near future.

Add a relay to control the lift pump, the stock oil pressure switch can't handle the load of the pump, switch is 1.9amp max, good running LP uses 2.8 amps. Clean miss on that home run. I use the stock OPS to trigger a relay, with power from a battery source.

NO, as opposed to an inline, they don't have any power to speak of, but as a daily driver, and even for what I've seen people do with them, they are a pretty good overall truck.

wannadiesel

Don't do it! I speak from experience, those things are electrical nightmares. I had one for a year and it was a very happy day when I sold it. Plus they break the crank for no apparent reason and spit out head gaskets regularly.

RAMRODD

Not a bad find if it runs good. I know a 6.5 in a 3/4 or 1 ton is a dog. but maybe it wouldn't be so bad in a 1/2 ton.
I know they don't start the best in the winter even if all the glow plugs work.
If your really interested in it send me a text and I could go look at it tomorrow for you.

RCW

The GM diesel is a great engine if the driver knows how to drive it. If not, it is a nightmare and will blow headgaskets and break the crank.

You do not leave them in drive and go cruising along with a load, but you downshift and run it to the governor on any hill that you know will result in a downshift anyway. Otherwise they drop out of the power band and are gutless, then blow headgaskets when they try to load the engine to pull it back up to speed. Once one drops off the power band, just ease it along and do not lug the engine.

The injection pump is crap from GM. But the fix is cheap, just take it to a good injection shop and have it rebuilt with cerametalic pressure side components. The cost is not much, and they will then run forever.

Do not expect it to pull like a Cummins, but it will out pull a 454 gas engine if properly geared and driven like you hate it. You can run them on the governor for hours on end with no problem at all. Certainly cannot do that with the Cummins or the Power Stroke.

Where they shine is the near 30 mpg they get on the highway, and you can do short hop commutes with one where you cannot with any of the Cummins made since 2003 or you have fuel system issues.

They are a light truck, and need to be treated as such.

HMX-1

I'd stick with a 6.2 if its going to be just a daily driver. My folks had several but my favorite one was the 1/2 ton Custom Deluxe (an '85 IIRC) with the 700R4 tranny and would easily get 20 MPG all day long. Dual 17 gallon tanks and highway only running would get us 600 miles if we kept it under 75 MPH.

The bench seat sucked, but that can be an easy fix today than it was back then.

high bid

All true.. my bro had a 2500 4x4. He drove it for close to 400k miles but probaby had about 6 IP replaced in it. The dealer kept installing the elec IP but had they installed a mechanical one he would have proabably been ok. The only other thing replaced was the tranny and brake master cycl. Empty got about 22mpg, loaded about 16 towing a boat. Yea, don't expect it to tow like a CTD.

Cummins Freak

thanks guys I think i'm gonna pass